phone free adelphi vol. 14 - April 15th, 2026
The warmer weather last night unlocked a new dimension to phone free adelphi: the second floor porch. That meant fewer people downstairs in front of the now dormant fireplace and more people enjoying the persistent evening breeze.
That doesn't mean the vinyl records stopped spinning in the living room!!!
I sat on the couch with a couple of folks, listening to a Renaissance harp album I bought from a Housing Works on the upper west side a while ago, and worked on a show I've been writing. The dulcet tones were relaxing and apt for deep focus. That is, until record started to skip! Uh-oh!! Although the beat it made was admittedly kinda sick, it was ultimately distracting. And kinda funny. And how we laughed!
That skip birthed a shared moment that never would have happened with Spotify (screw those guys). A human moment. And these moments are slipping from our grasps as AI automates our lives and streamling music platforms dictate our listening preferences through their capitalistic algorithms and and and...
I stood up, took the needle off, and put on another record. A steel drum album by fascinating Fred Burnett, which had one too many steel drum covers to lend itself to deep focus music, but got the people to bob their heads and smile a bit. And how they smiled...
